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US sees light in Iraq's darkness
By Dave Clark
AFP
BAGHDAD
Petroleumworld.com 10 25 06
The United States ambassador to Iraq assured US voters Tuesday that victory can still be achieved in this war-torn country within a year as long as Iraqi leaders live up to their promises.
At a news conference that was briefly plunged into darkness by one of Baghdad's daily power cuts, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad described the battle to save Iraq from extremists as "the defining challenge of our era".
But as he and the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, briefed reporters in the heavily-fortified Green Zone, gunfire and bomb blasts echoed around the city beyond as the war's grim death toll continued to mount.
The number of American soldiers killed in the first weeks of October hit 91, putting it on track to be the bloodiest month for US forces since November 2004, when they famously fought an intense battle in Fallujah.
Another US soldier, an American of Iraqi descent, was kidnapped Monday after he left the Green Zone to visit his family in Baghdad, the US military said, as soldiers bearing his picture set up cordons and searched cars.
The soldier left the compound to see relatives and was abducted by gunmen from their home in the Karrada district of downtown Baghdad.
According to relatives, "three cars pulled up to the residence. The men, who were described to have dark colored rags over their noses and mouths, handcuffed the soldier and forced him into one of the vehicles."
US forces launched a large-scale manhunt to rescue their comrade.
Meanwhile, Iraq civilians continued to bear the brunt of the violence, with bomb and gun attacks killing at least five civilians, including one blown apart in a blast targeting a baker's selling cakes for the feast ending Ramadan.
Khalilzad, in a direct appeal to the American people two weeks before key mid-term congressional elections, said: "Our goal has not changed."
"Our goal is to enable Iraqis to develop a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian representative democracy after decades of tyranny," he said, rebuffing talk in Washington of settling for lesser aims in exchange for a quick exit.
"Iraqi leaders must step up to achieve key political and security milestones on which they have agreed. As they take these steps, which can produce success and bring about Iraqi security self-reliance, we must support them."
In order to bring an end to the violence, Khalilzad argued, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his fellow Iraqi leaders must quickly resolve their key disputes while building stronger armed forces.
They must agree to share oil revenues, amend the constitution to ensure the rights of all groups, disarm militias, set a date for provincial elections and review the panel charged with sacking officials from Saddam Hussein's era.
"We believe that in the course of the next 12 months, assuming that Iraqi leaders fulfil the commitments they have made, and I don't have any reason to doubt that, there should be a national compact in place by that time," he said.
Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie confirmed that his government had "agreed on a timeline".
"They are a good package of measures and certainly we agree with them. There are some political and security issues which need to be tackled and there are some political decisions we need to take," he told CNN.
Casey repeated his position that Iraq's armed forces should be ready within 12 to 18 months to take control, but did not set a target for withdrawing US troops, even admitting that more might be needed in the short term.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which came to an end with this week's three-day Eid feast, has been marked by a spectacular rise in attacks on both Iraqi civilians and US forces.
With 91 American soldiers killed since the start of October, this month is on course to be the bloodiest for US forces since the battle of Fallujah. November 2004 saw 137 US military losses, including but not limited to the battle.
Meanwhile, gun and bomb attacks on civilians have increased by more than 20 percent, forcing Iraq's bitterly divided communities of Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs further apart and increasing the risk of all-out civil war.
On Tuesday, police in the southern city of Amara said two of their number had been murdered in an apparent revenge attack by members of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
US soldiers also shot and killed four Iraqi firemen after mistaking their fire truck for one hijacked by insurgents, US military headquarters said.
AFP 241656 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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